Chapter Text
“I have a question for you, Lucien.”
“For the love of—“ Shawn muttered under his breath. He hadn’t expected having to address this issue so soon, as Sparkle had seemed completely unaware until now.
“Did I do something wrong?” Sparkle asked, “You have been acting really odd.”
“Odd?” Lucien asked skeptically before turning around and saying, “Why, nooooo, of course not, I want everything to be all sunshine and rainbows!”
“Excuse me?” Sparkle said, a look of shock present in her eyes.
“What?” Lucien asked bitterly.
“Could you stop treating me like I’m a kid? I’m a mature 21 year old and—”
“Maybe if you stop acting like one.”
“I’m sorry, WHAT?!”
Both the members of Peanut Head and No Space stared at their bickering bandmates.
“You really haven’t changed at all since that day, have you, Kira?” Lucien asked.
“What do you—”
“You’re still the annoying, bratty, selfish piece of shit you were back then and you will never change, will you?” Lucien asked.
Sparkle gasped in horror as the words from Lucien’s mouth sank in to her brain. Meanwhile, Peanut Head had to restrain Kelsey and Shawn from murdering Lucien.
“Lucien, why—”
“Stop interrupting me.”
No Space quickly fled the scene to go distract the people in the cafeteria.
“Do you even remember what you did?” Lucien asked.
“I told you I liked your socks and then we became friends?” Sparkle said.
“What about after that?” Lucien spat, “When you abandoned me without saying a word to my face? When you left me back to having no friends whatsoever? Does that ring a bell? Or are you so mature now that you have dementia too?”
“WOAH!!!!” Raj exclaimed.
“Fuck off, Loser!!!” Kelsey yelled.
“¡QUÉ TE JODAN!” Stacks yelled.
“Aw, cute, you have to have your friends protect you. You’re still as weak as ever,” Lucien said condescendingly, “You really haven’t changed. You always get people wrapped around your finger, and then when they get attached, you leave. ”
“I do not —”
“I TOLD YOU TO STOP INTERRUPTING ME!!!”
Sparkle looked at her shoes. So this was how it is, huh?…
She thought that reuniting with Lucien would mean fixing the broken bond between them from all those years ago. She thought she could make up for lost time. She thought that he would have been nicer than some jerk who was yelling at her and her friends. She thought that he wouldn’t be the type of guy that her friends would want to murder. But here she was. She was wrong.
What came out of her mouth in the following seconds shocked everyone in the room..
“What…did you say?”
“ I said SHUT THE FUCK UP LUCIEN ! ” Sparkle yelled, staring Lucien dead in the eye.
That was the first time any of them had heard Sparkle curse. She was most definitely mad.
“You do NOT get to talk about my friends like that, and you definitely don’t get to talk about me like that either!” Sparkle said, “I know I hurt you—”
“You don’t know shit.”
“I know I caused you pain—”
“Stop—”
“What?! ‘Stop interrupting you?!’ You’re the one who keeps interrupting me and not letting me even defend myself! Look, I’m sorry I hurt you, I truly am, but I had absolutely ZERO control of that! We were kids for crying out loud! My parents always made me move across the country! Do you think I meant to leave you without saying goodbye? NO! I DIDN’T!” Sparkle said, so mad that she wasn’t even being loud or anything, just bitter, “I have no clue why the hell you seem to think that justifies you treating me almost like I’m less than human. I don’t know what part of me you think hasn’t changed, but if the ‘change’ you wanted from me means turning into the real ‘immature piece of shit’ like you , I’ll gladly pass. I’m done trying with you.”
“How can you be done with me if I’m the one who’s done with you?” Lucien exclaimed.
“That doesn’t even make sense!”
“YOU DON’T MAKE SENSE!”
“That’s enough!” Craig yelled stepping in between them, “He isn’t worth it.”
“Like Kira’s existence,” Lucien said. Craig turned to face Lucien and looked ready to strangle him.
Sparkle didn’t hear anything that came out of her friends’ mouths or Lucien’s. All she wanted to do was get far away from there as possible. So she ran. As far as she could. Where? She didn’t know. She just wanted to be away from this .
“SPARKLE!”
Lucien stormed off to go find his bandmates after Sparkle ran away, leaving Peanut Head distraught on what to do.
“Raj, you, Craig, & Beth go check on her, we’ll stay here for the results,” Shawn said.
Stacks, Kelsey, and JP all opened their mouths in protest but were quickly interrupted by Shawn.
“We don’t all need to check on her because that might overwhelm her, and someone needs to stay here for the results,” Shawn said, “Raj and Craig are the closest with her and so is Beth. Plus, I have a feeling she might have gone back to the hotel, so they’ll need Beth’s room key.”
Once Shawn explained the plan thoroughly, Peanut Head agreed and put it in motion.
—☆—
Sparkle slammed the door shut. She wanted to scream. Why did it have to be like this? Why had fate been so cruel to her? Why did she have to snap like that? The never ending questions flooded her head as she dropped to her knees and sobbed.
She never meant to hurt him. She didn’t want to snap at him like that. She just wanted to be friends again. Was that too much to ask? Apparently so, since Lucien didn’t want anything to do with her anymore.
It was her fault. All her fault.
*knock knock*
“Hey, Sparkle, can we come in?” Raj asked. Sparkle was caught off guard, but then realized that of course they would check up on her, considering that she ran off without a word.
“You’re just going to say ‘I told you so,’
aren’t you?” Sparkle asked.
“No, I’m not blaming you,” Raj said.
“Sparkle, don’t be upset that Lucien is a jerk,” Craig said. So he was here too.
“Is it okay if we come in?” Beth asked. Her too.
Sparkle hesitantly got up and opened the door.
“Hey,” Sparkle choked out, eyes still puffy from crying.
“Oh, Sparkle,” Raj said in sympathy. Sparkle sat down on her bed with Raj next to her and Craig & Beth across from her.
“I’m sorry I left without saying anything,” Sparkle said.
“No, don’t apologize,” Beth said.
“But—”
“No buts,” Craig said.
“It was my—”
“Not your fault,” Raj said.
“Still, I hate the fact that—”
“KIRA!!!”
“Shutting up,” Sparkle said.
“That’s not what we—” Raj started before facepalming, “We don’t want you blaming yourself. Like you said, Lucien’s the immature piece of shit. He had no right treating you like that.”
“I still feel guilty for lashing out at him,” Sparkle said, “Since he was hurting, and I probably just made it much worse.”
“Honestly, you probably could have worded it better, but you were basically stating the facts,” Craig said, “He shouldn’t be mad at you for something that happened when you were kids. Spending that much time on something like that can’t be good.”
“He needs therapy,” Beth said, not thinking about what she said and covering her mouth with her hand in realization.
“No, he does probably need therapy. That happened like over a decade ago and he’s still caught up on it?” Raj agreed, “Both of you may have made mistakes, but that just means you can be the bigger person and walk away .”
“Walking away is what started the problem in the first place though,” Sparkle said.
“Sparkle—you knew what I meant,” Raj sighed.
“What he means is that you’re human. You’re going to make mistakes. Sometimes the best thing you can do is move on,” Beth said, “Even if it hurts. Walking away from the problem doesn’t mean you have no empathy for Lucien’s emotions, it just means that you’re letting him sort out his own problems. He can’t heal if he keeps thinking about the issue.”
“Exactly,” Craig said, “It is not your job to fix Lucien’s problems. What’s done is done. You don’t owe him anything .”
“Sparkle, we’re here for you. Even though the others aren’t here right now, they still wanted to be here, which says a lot,” Raj said, “We know you’re in pain right now, but you don’t have to beat yourself up further.”
“I think I understand now,” Sparkle said, wiping away her tears, “Thanks, guys.”
“Anytime,” Craig said. Craig, Raj, and Sparkle had a group hug and Beth just sat there for a minute before Sparkle yanked her to join in. Suddenly, Raj got a text.
“Oh, good news! We passed this round!” Raj said.
“Just like I knew it,” Craig said.
“That’s good,” Beth said.
“Yep, especially since I think I know what we need to do for the next round,” Sparkle said, gaze determined.
“Are you thinking of what I think you are?” Raj asked.
“Yep. It’s about time we finish ‘that project.’ ”